


Captain Washington to the Rescue

by Lamsfan



Series: Whamilton and Lams Meet-Cutes [5]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Airplanes, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Meetings, M/M, Not A Meet-Cute, Racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 12:53:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30089379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lamsfan/pseuds/Lamsfan
Summary: Alex just wants to get to his meeting with his nerves intact. His seatmate wants to make it difficult.
Series: Whamilton and Lams Meet-Cutes [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1833766
Kudos: 9





	Captain Washington to the Rescue

**Author's Note:**

> My computer restarted and a draft of this popped up in the autosaved documents and I thought, why not.

Alex didn’t dislike flying. He loathed flying. The passengers in front of him always turned around to look and him, and seeing his slender frame, reclined every time, keeping him from using the tray table for work. He’d read an article about airplane water, so no coffee, unless he brought it with him. As a result, the lack of caffeine, the stale cabin air, smelly food from the terminal restaurants, and loud conversations between his fellow passengers forced him to open the air vent fully while he tried to swallow his nausea and soothe his aching head. He might have been able to manage all of those issues if his first ever flight hadn’t ended in an emergency landing because some idiot had decided to smoke in the lavatory and had started a fire.

But he had never encountered anything as awful as the way this flight had begun. When his seatmate saw him coming, she placed her large handbag on his seat, opened a magazine and pretended not to see him. He placed his carryon bag in the overhead bin and folded his jacket neatly atop it. When she hadn’t moved by the time he finished, he pointed and said calmly, “Excuse me. This is my seat.” 

“Can’t you just sit somewhere else?” she huffed. “I don’t want to sit next to you. How do I know you’re not a terrorist?”

Alex wore his best suit and he knew he looked good in it. He could see his reflection in the shine of his shoes and not a hair was out of place. “No, I paid for this seat. Maybe **you** should find another seat if sitting next to me is a problem.” 

She looked him over and once she had obviously decided he didn’t belong in premium economy, she sneered, “Did you? Really? You look more like a basic economy passenger. Aren’t you supposed to wait until the full fare passengers have boarded and just take whatever seats are left in the back? That’s probably not even your seat. Let me see your boarding pass.”

Alex had seen people demand to see other passengers’ boarding passes in disputes over seating and he never understood why they thought they had that right. He had no intention of showing his or debating with her. He had been up since four in the morning and he just wanted to close his eyes and have a nap before his meeting. “Ma’am,” he said. The title tasted like ash on his tongue, but he continued politely, “Please move your bag so I can sit down.” She didn’t, so Alex picked it up, placed in on her lap and sat down. Then all hell broke loose. She jabbed repeatedly at the flight attendant call button with one hand while trying to hit him with her purse with the other, screaming the entire time about how Alex had threatened her and tried to steal her purse.

She must have forgotten that almost everyone had a cell phone these days and nearly every passenger in the surrounding seats had theirs aimed at her, hoping to catch the next viral video. She got her wish. She didn’t have to sit next to him because she was being moved, right off the plane, to the cheers of the other passengers who just wanted to get in the air on time.

Alex neither needed nor wanted this kind of drama or attention. He tried to avoid the curious eyes of those nearest him and had just gotten settled when he saw the captain approaching. He panicked for a second thinking he was going to be removed from the flight as well, even though he had done nothing wrong. As the captain got closer, Alex saw his eyes. From a distance he would have called them brown. But upon closer inspection, they shone like sunlight through a bottle of whiskey, and he studied them so closely, cataloguing the flecks of gold, that he entirely missed the captain’s statement. “I’m sorry. Would you repeat that?”

“I’m Captain Washington. On behalf of the airline and the entire flight crew, I wanted to apologize for your treatment today. We’re moving you to First Class for this flight and for your return trip tomorrow. We appreciate your business and hope you will also consider us for your next journey. Now if you would grab your bag, I can show you to your seat and we’ll be on our way.” 

It took Alex a moment to wrap his head around everything that had happened. In a matter of minutes, he’d gone from being insulted and assaulted to having his jacket hung in a closet and being offered a beverage, a soft pillow and a blanket. The larger seat, a little bit of alcohol to relax his jangled nerves, and visions of the handsome captain were just enough to allow Alex to do something he’d never done. He fell asleep. Just before landing, the head purser woke him gently with a warm towel and note written on one of the cards usually reserved for the cabin crew to thank premium passengers.

_**“Pardon me if this is too forward, but I’d be very happy to have you join me for dinner this evening if you don’t already have plans. This is my last flight for the week and my schedule is open. Since I’m based here, I know the best places to eat. GW.”** _

Alex leaned into the aisle to see the closed cockpit door, wondering if proper airline pickup etiquette called for him to send his answer back through the flight attendant. He thought fondly of the notes he and his friends passed in middle school. _Do you like me? Yes or No._ Instead, he drafted a simple text to the number at the bottom of the card and scheduled it to be delivered a few minutes after he expected cell service to be restored.

“Yes, I’d like that.”

His timing had been perfect; he heard a text notification come from the captain’s direction just as he passed the cockpit door on his way to deplane. And, as he did at the end of every flight, he thanked the pilot. No one needed to know if the words carried a different meaning this time.

**Author's Note:**

> I am pretty sure the captain has too many pre-departure checklists to complete to have time to deal with stupidity like this. But I knew all he needed was to see Alex and he'd be hooked. I hope he could concentrate on his instruments.


End file.
